Biomorphis Unveils Plans for a Green Timber Bridge to Inspire Bicycling and Biodiversity in Edinburgh

Edinburgh-based design and architecture firm Biomorphis recently revealed plans for a green bridge that will span the city’s Leith Walk. One of the longest streets in Edinburgh, the thoroughfare long ago saw trams transport passengers commuting across the city. Over 50 years after the trams were ripped out and replaced by buses, traffic has worsened and budget cuts led to the cancellation of a new tram system. The city now must find creative ways to allow its residents to move across town. Biomorphis has suggested the green bridge as one idea to improve mobility in Edinburgh by linking bicycle lanes that crisscross the city of 500,000.

Like many cities in the United Kingdom (and the world at large), Edinburgh suffers from congestion and dependence on fossil fuels. Biomorphis sees a potential solution for the city’s infrastructure woes within the city’s network of broken links. One such broken link lies between two different bicycling paths that both end at Leith Walk. Currently cyclists who wish to cut across the busy artery have no convenient option to continue their ride in the immediate vicinity of this proposed bridge.

Taking a cue from New York’s High Line, the firm suggests building the Leith Walk Regeneration, a wooden bridge that would connect two elevated train tracks. In a move to bring ecology back to this old city, Biomorphis suggests the use of locally and bio-sourced timber. Artisans would build the frame, which the firm has designed using a computerized algorithmic design, and the entire structure would then be assembled locally.

The end result would be the reuse of half a kilometer (0.3 miles) of unused train tracks and gardens that would line the bike path. The wooden bridge link would add to a revitalized ecology that new open space and communal gardens would bring to the city. The end goal, according to Biomorphis, is “to bring a lightweight structure with low embodied energy.” A new energy, therefore, would be the return of local biodiversity and natural animal habitat, which locals and visitors would enjoy as they seamlessly bicycle across one of Britain’s most beloved cities.